Blossom among Beasts
by kung fu kit
Summary: (Xiaoyin) Xiao is living at the mishima residence and will soon enter the 3rd iron fist tournament, She's out to win, but Jin has turned her happy world upside down and his pain becomes her own...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own tekken. However any original characters not found in Tekken or any other found herein are of my own creation and DO belong to me

Hmmm well if you hadn't guessed or read the summary, this is a xiaoyin… one I've been meaning to write for a very long time. It isn't all happy doo-da. I have a general tendency to write about Jin, Hwoarang and Xiao as a group… (Kind of like the kilik/ maxi/ xianghua group in SC) NO! Not what you're thinking! No love triangles or yaoi or threesome implications here thank you very much *raspberry* But a conflicting friendship group… 

HWOARANG'S ROLE: In this fic his role tends to be the same as in most of my fics, which include him… (Not that I've posted up many but…) To me Hwoarang always seemed like the older brother figure (w/Xiao), wacky mad but protective when necessary. His rivalry with Jin sort of adds to this characteristic with Xiao. It sort of sweet, and I don't think Hwoarang should be paired with any one other than Miharu, which will probably not happen in the game… ever… shame *sigh* 

Anyway here we are…

*     *     *

_Twelve_

It was endless, boring and the utmost useless thing she'd ever have to learn in her entire life. Xiaoyu stared down at the textbook on her desk blankly. Nope is still made no sense. 

Eleven 

What the hell was a _feasibility range _anyway? How did that solve world problems like poverty or war or what to have next for lunch? Why didn't they teach people to have a sense of humour? Her math teacher definitely needed to attend that class. She had seemed to find it less than amusing when Xiao had informed her that Panda had chewed up her _normal distribution _homework. 

_Ten_

At least Miharu stood by her…

_Nine_

The scratching of pencils was deafening now, the monotonous hum of the radiators played on her nerves. Not long now…

_Eight_

And then there was the exam… How was she going to get through that? She'd only just managed to get the hang of Japanese… never mind _math_ in Japanese. Maybe Jin would help her. Then again knowing him she'd never get a word out of him. _Sigh _Kazama Jin; as if every girl he'd met hadn't done that the first time they'd come across him. Xiao couldn't blame them with his tall muscular body, lean and yet so powerful. The severity of his attitude kept most people away from him, but his soft warm brown eyes were sometimes inviting, but maybe Xiao was the only person that noticed.

_Seven_

Ok so it was stupid to even think about Kazama that way. But it didn't hurt to indulge in sweet fantasies sometimes, just to drown into blissful ignorance. She supposed her little fantasies would be justified if Kazama were anything like the way he acted at school. Xiao knew better, knew _him_ better and also knew that there was much more to the young sickeningly good looking karate master than he let on. 

Six 

Maybe that's what drew her in further. Xiao had grown out of her teenage crush for Jin almost two weeks after they'd been acquainted at the Mishima mansion. He was a friend, a quiet friend that seemed to need no more than her presence to count for company

_Five_

That annoyed Xiao. She needed talk she needed verbal communication. It annoyed her to a point of fury when he'd simply sit in silence when around her. Sometimes Xiao suspected he knew that it irritated her, that he did it on purpose. Maybe the ever-serious hard working young man had a sense of humour after all…

Four 

Fat chance

Three 

The rising scratches of pencils faded softly. The hum of the radiators was the only thing audible now. Xiao closed the text book on her desk ever so quietly and swallowed hard as her fingers itched nervously towards her school bag…

_Two_

There it was, she wasn't the only one now… waiting… not long… 

Click… 

One' o'clock. The bell rang sending a shock through the empty silence that had lingered. Xiao grabbed her bag and swept up her books from her desk. She moved along with the crowd, out the door… out of school.

_Free at last   _

*     *     *


	2. The many faces of a tortured soul

Chapter One: The many faces of a tortured soul

Xiao was glad when she finally reached the Mishima residence. She threw her bag on the floor before flopping on her bed and stretching luxuriously. School was beginning to get tedious and was, if possible, more boring than ever before. The only motivation she had left to train, was the tournament coming up in the next month. She'd been living in the Mishima residence for a total of four months but despite her recent spell of boredom, she never once thought about going back home. Things were better here, they were comfortable.

Xiao kicked off her brown school shoes and flexed her toes. She peered at her socks to see the left one stained a deep maroon at the tips. Xiao cursed and pulled off her socks to view her battered toes, caked with dry blood. She'd hurt her left foot badly in training not two days ago and it hadn't stopped bleeding yet, spoiling all her good white socks.

She hopped over to her en suite bathroom, careful not to let any blood drip onto the floor and placed it carefully into the bathtub. Washing it through, Xiao dressed the wound and walked calmly back to her room. She couldn't put off training now, it was too close to the tournament and no matter how farfetched her goals seemed; she still wanted to achieve them. That of course, she had kept to herself. There were only two other people that knew of her ambition to build her very own theme-park and they were Mishima Heihachi, who would, granted that she won the upcoming tournament, fund the construction and Kazama Jin, her best friend. Anyone else would have thought her mad. Sometimes Jin gave her an odd smile, as if he wondered what made her think so positively or what could make someone see nothing but the best of everything.

_Sigh_

And thus she would linger on bittersweet fantasy again. Xiao could never hope to be anything more than a friend to Kazama, he was just too wrapped up in his own world to notice her that way. She was as good a friend to him as he was to her, which Xiao prized above all. He never gave _anyone_ the attention he gave her. He was her friend, her companion and hers alone. But despite that, there were things that he kept even from her and it drove her mad. Whenever she thought she was getting close to figuring him out he'd shake his head and give her that smile, _the_ smile. At first glance you'd see it and the next it'd be gone, but most of all it'd show in his deep chestnut eyes and Xiao knew it was a smile for her alone.

Xiao rolled her eyes, disgusted with herself yet again. Another fantasy, another lifetime. She wasn't _like _the other girls, she didn't melt when he walked past them she didn't giggle girlishly with her friends when they talked about him. Kazama Jin was untouchable and Ling Xiao-Yu was _not_ his type. Petite, slight framed, adorable little girl looks. No, Kazama Jin would not settle for the restless hot tempered teenager and girls were a subject he kept off when talking to Xiao. But that was ok. Sure she'd had her crush on him, but it'd passed.

There was a slight knock on her door; Xiao jumped slightly, startled.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, let me in." Came the muffled reply.

Speak of the devil.

Xiao opened the door and Jin practically collapsed through, falling to the floor with a loud thump. Xiao squeaked worriedly and knelt beside him.

"Are you ok?" she asked. But he just stared up at her with a mysterious grin plastered across his face.

"Shut the door, quick." He looked neither sick nor injured but extremely out of breath. Xiao shut the door before turning back to him, frowning, and arms folded sternly.

"What have you done?" she enquired with narrow eyes and waited while he caught his breath and sat up.

"Ran the distance between your room and the courtyard in thirty-six seconds flat." That was lightning speed…

"OK, what did you do before that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Eh you know, this and that." He smiled. It was a rare occasion when Jin smiled that way, mischievously. It was times like these that reminded Xiao that he was only eighteen, and that he, like any other teenager, liked a bit of fun every now and then. "If my grandfather comes this way, I'd be grateful if you could point him elsewhere. You know? Somewhere that I'm not." Xiao closed the door and shook her head.

"What have you done?" she asked again.

"There were some drunk college kids passing while we were training…" the _we_,Xiao assumed were some of the other young men being trained as tekkenshu. "Some of them got cocky, and they weren't even drunk. So they challenged us to a match and err, I'm sure you can guess the result." He grinned. Xiao was too shocked to speak as she noticed a few sprinkles of blood on Jin's white Gi. Jin didn't get into _fights_. He avoided them at all costs. "Grandfather passed by and they ran but I don't want to think of what punishment I'd get if I got caught in that brawl…" he explained. "The others will cover for me, but I still don't have an alibi…" he said expectantly and Xiao could do nothing but glare at him.

"You got into a fight? With some drunk dumb-asses passing by?" she asked incredulously. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't think I was." He admitted. "Anyway, one tires of constant discipline." He said overdramatically and smiled wholeheartedly. "Anyhow, will you cover for me in-case?" he asked.

"That goes without saying doesn't it? You know I'd never sell you out." she said and punched his arm playfully.

"Great! So I'm gonna go get changed and I'm going down to the Dojo to act the part of the ever sensible, dutiful grandson. Are you going to come spar with me?" he asked.

"Sure, just go get changed, you have blood on that Gi and let _me_ change and I'll be right down." He nodded dutifully and leaned forward.

Sitting down Jin had clear view of Xiao's bandaged toes and glanced at her oddly.

"What did you do to your foot?"

"Squished my toes in training the other day. Baaad shoes." She mumbled.

"ahh, I'll make sure I don't step on them then." He said and sat up and got up off the floor in one fluid motion. He had a tendency to do that, move like a lithe animal. Xiao stared a while and shook the thought off with a shrug before setting off to change. Jin turned and gave her one last fleeting smile before he disappeared down the corridor to his own room.

Jin's behaviour confused Xiao sometimes, he was sombre, cool and reserved. But then every now and then he'd let go completely and do something stupid. No matter how many times she'd experience this, it'd always catch her off guard. But she knew as soon as day broke the next morning he'd be back the way he always was and that she should savour the play behind his soft chestnut eyes for the evening. And oh she would have savoured the talk and fun if only she knew how short a while it would last…

_I would like to thank Misao seta, muonlinefan, Surreal03, snowbunni3z and surfer sea turtle for reviewing the last chapter even though it was short, very lacking of info of the fic in any way and overall has taken me ages to update.also hope they'll like the addition and review the following chapters. I hope all the new readers will enjoy and hope that anyone who has read but not reviewed yet will find the find more worthy of a review now thanks_

-nidhi-


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